Win probabilities: Valspar Championship

Jon Rahm's switch to Callaway received most of the early-week equipment buzz at the Sentry Tournament of Champions, but two of the game's biggest names also have new gear in play. Both Dustin Johnson and Justin Thomas are using new drivers this week at Kapalua. They're paired together Thursday in the day's final group, which will tee off at 5:30 p.m. Eastern. Johnson, the reigning FedExCup champion, has put TaylorMade's new SIM2 driver (10.5 degrees) in the bag this week. The club will have his trusted Fujikura Speeder 661 X shaft. Johnson also is adding the SIM2 HL 3-wood (16.5 degrees) with a Fujikura Ventus Black 9 X shaft. Johnson found higher ball speeds with the new driver, but most noticeably more forgiveness across the face. "I’m going to play the new SIM2 this week. ... I really like it," Johnson told reporters about the SIM2 driver. "I think it looks great, it’s got a great feel. ... I’m always looking for more distance and more consistency. But the one I’m playing right now seems to be working pretty well." While we don't have any technical details on the new SIM2, it hit the USGA's conforming list last week and seeding (the process of putting the club in TOUR players' hands) began this week. TaylorMade looks to have upgraded the original SIM design by moving more weight to the perimeter of the club, including a heavy rear weight for a higher momentum of inertia (and greater forgiveness) and higher launch. Additionally, the weight track of SIM has been replaced by a new structure. It was also announced Thursday that Johnson, who has used TaylorMade equipment since turning pro, has signed a long-term extension with the company. Thomas has a new driver after recently changing balls, as well. He started using the new ProV1x late last year to add height to his iron shots. He put the ball in play at the Mayakoba Golf Classic presented by UNIFIN, where he finished T12. "I was trying to get a little bit more height on the ball, trying to be able to hold greens a little bit better when they get firm or with long irons," said Thomas, who led the TOUR in Strokes Gained: Approach last season. Thomas was a little later to the party in terms of getting into the new Titleist TSi3 driver but seems to have found a combo that works. The biggest issue for Thomas at the tail end of last year was spin off the lower-launching TSi3 head. After some testing with Titleist Tour Rep JJ VanWezenbeeck, they settled on the higher-launching Fujikura Ventus Red 6 X. This combo not only increased ball speed by 4 mph (175 to 179 mph) but also kept launch the same and only dropped spin down 200 RPM (2,300 to 2,100). Previous combos found spin dropping sub-2,000, which was a non-starter for Thomas. He is using a 9-degree head in the driver. "The big improvement for Justin with TSi is the increase in ball speed," VanWezenbeeck said. "His ball speeds were up at least a couple miles per hour versus his TS3, and with the new shaft we were able to dial in his launch and spin and get him that ball flight that he loves to see and gives him the most confidence." The difference in the TSi3 versus Thomas' TS3 can be done by honing in on the "i" in the new club's name. GolfWRX's Ryan Barath says, "Engineers spent a huge amount of time figuring out a way to make the drivers more stable higher and lower on the face ... to create smaller launch windows and greater spin robustness, (which) creates more consistent numbers and smaller standard deviation from optimal conditions. "… According to Titleist, the TSi2 has an improved high/low inertia of 13%, while the TSi3 comes in at 10%. In the world of engineering, single percent advancements are considered a big step so for Titleist to hit double digits on both products should be considered a big leap."

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NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. – Tiger Woods’ magic with his Scotty Cameron didn’t continue Friday at the BMW Championship. Woods struggled with his putting throughout his second-round 70. After starting the day with a share of the lead, he is now five shots behind leader Xander Schauffele. After holing four putts of 10 feet or longer on Thursday, Woods’ longest made putt Friday was a 6-footer for par on his first hole. He ended the day with a three-putt bogey that was punctuated by a miss from 6 feet. It was his second consecutive missed par putt from inside 10 feet. Woods was 1 for 4 from 4-8 feet on Friday. This was his second-worst performance in Strokes Gained: Putting of the season. He lost 3.57 strokes on the greens. Only the second round of the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide, where he lost 3.68 strokes with his putting, was worse. Woods made three birdies and three bogeys Friday. All three of his birdies came on putts from inside 3 feet, and two of them were on par-5s. He made just 31 feet, 4 inches of putts in the second round. Woods wasn’t ready to blame his putter, though. “I hit it just as good and putt it just as good. Nothing went in. That’s the way it goes,â€� Woods said. It wasn’t just his iron play that wasn’t sharp. He hit 14 greens Friday but failed to hit many shots close to the hole. On the par-3s and par-4s, he hit just two approach shots within 15 feet. His proximity of 37 feet, 4 inches was almost 12 feet higher than the previous day. A change in conditions is partly to blame. Woods’ average approach shots on the par-4s Friday was 144 yards, 19 yards longer than the previous day. Thursday’s high temperatures allowed the ball to fly far and for Woods to hit driver over many of the fairway bunkers that cut into the fairway. The softer conditions made the course play longer and made it difficult for him to get close to the back hole locations. Half of Friday’s pins were cut within 10 strokes of the back edge of the green. “(I) couldn’t get back there, couldn’t skip the ball back there,â€� Woods said. “It was a difficult task to try and flight one to get it back there without hitting it over the back.â€� Aroninimink was hit by rain overnight, and tee times were moved up because of thunderstorms that were forecast to hit Friday afternoon. The air was damp and heavy when Woods teed off at 8:06 a.m. He missed four birdie putts from 20 feet or less on his first seven holes. He didn’t make his first birdie of the day until the par-5 ninth hole, where he pitched to 2 feet from in front of the green.   That offset his first bogey of the tournament. One day after hitting his tee shot over the green on the downhill par-3 fifth hole, he hit it into one of the deep bunkers fronting the green. He couldn’t convert the 4-foot par putt after playing a delicate shot from the sand. It was his first miss from inside 10 feet of the week. Of his six missed greens this week, four have come on par-3s. Woods was under par for the first time Friday after a birdie on No. 11, where he wedged to 2 feet from 93 yards. He made a nice par save at the 15th hole, getting up-and-down from 75 yards after driving into the rough on the 515-yard, par-4. That preceded his third birdie of the day. Despite driving into a divot in the 16th fairway, he reached the green in two with a fairway wood. He two-putted for birdie. Woods then pushed his tee shot on the par-3 17th into a bunker before three-putting the last hole. “That round today was easily 6, 7-under par,â€� he said. “It turned into even par which is not what I needed to do today.â€�

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